


Your Presence Still Lingers Here

by riversongshair



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Doctor Who, Bittersweet, F/M, Fluff, Hospitals, Nurses, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-17
Updated: 2013-10-17
Packaged: 2017-12-29 16:41:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1007691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riversongshair/pseuds/riversongshair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU- After the Doctor passed away, River tries to cope by working at a hospital as a nurse. While River doesn't fit in with the rest of the people, finding it difficult to follow their rules and hours, River tries her best to make it work, but she knows that after each day, no matter how hard it was, she always has the Doctor with her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Presence Still Lingers Here

**Author's Note:**

> This idea occurred to me as a dream I had actually. It was quite sad but cute, so I thought it would make a great fic. I guess you could call this an ER crossover if you wanted? 
> 
> It's kind of surreal to be honest. It was a dream after all. 
> 
> Also, I am aware that I am working on another fic at the moment, The Curious Case of River Song, which to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue, so yeah.

No one expected that day to ever come, yet somehow, they all knew that it was bound to happen one day. River of all people knew, that one day the Doctor's final hours would come, where he would not regenerate ever again, and he finally lay his head to rest for all of eternity. But River never prepared herself for that day, and it broke her just as much as she thought it would when it finally came. The Doctor's final battle. The battle that couldn't be won. 

_"River, please. Run."_

_"No."  She wailed. "No, I can't leave you!"_

_"River, I promise, I'll be fine, just run. Leave."  The Doctor urged, holding River's hands within his, looking deep into her eyes._

Thinking back, River should have seen it, his eyes lied, the Doctor himself knew that this was it, and that there was no way to escape. 

_In the midst of the explosions, the war cries and the bloodshed surrounding them, River shook her head, her vision blurred with the tears that formed. She blinked, letting a flood of tears fall down her face. "I can't." She whispered tearfully. "Doctor please. Let me stay with you, you can't fight alone. You can't be alone."_

_"River, LEAVE. It's too dangerous, now leave. I can do this, I've got a plan." He said in a hopeful voice, frantically looking around them to check if there was anything coming their way._

She sat down, replaying that scene, the very same words echoing through her head. She smiled sadly, looking down tearfully at that blue diary he gave her all those many years ago. He always had a plan, she thought, he never once wanted to admit he was wrong. Always thought there was a way out, that only he could do it. He usually could, but not this time, she murmured underneath her breath. 

_"Doctor, please. If you stay here, you risk the chance of getting yourself killed, and I could never live with myself if I let that happen." She said desperately, wiping tears from her eyes._

_The Doctor let out a frustrated groan, he fumbled around, looking in his jacket pocket. He took out his sonic screwdriver and thrust it into River's hands, closing her fingers around it so that she gripped it well. "River, this is my sonic screwdriver." He paused, looking down at it with a hint of resignation in his eyes, that was the moment the Doctor knew that these were his final moments. "No matter what happens, I want you to know that I'm always there as long as you have this." He sighed, hoping that maybe River would listen to him now. "So River, please run." He said quietly._

_They both sat there in each other's presence with a moment of silence as River held onto his sonic screwdriver. She nodded silently, blinking again to let her tears fall down her face. "Okay." She weeped. "O-okay I'll go." Her voice was choked in tears. "Doctor, be safe." She placed her hand on his chest, stroking the bowtie he so proudly wore, that was now tattered and torn from the ongoing battle._

_The Doctor looked away, avoiding her tearful eyes, knowing that it would only hurt even more to see her like this. He placed his hand on hers, "I promise." He said._

_With that River turned away, and ran. She ran and ran, not even daring to turn back, knowing that her love was still in the warzone, all alone. "It's what he wanted. He'll be safe. He promised." River chanted to herself as she kept running, finally stopping to catch her breath. And only then, did River dare to turn around and look back, but with the worse timing ever, as one final, massive, explosion landed directly onto the region where only moments ago she bid a tearful good-bye to her Doctor._

_She screamed in horror. No it couldn't be. He promised, she sobbed loudly._

Rule one. The Doctor lies. River remembered those immortal words, never to be forgotten. 

After long days of mourning, River knew she needed to carry on. She knew that if she spent anymore days alone with just her thoughts to keep her company, she would go mad. And that's how she ended up working at a hospital. She wanted to surround herself around good people, people who were willing to help others, just like the Doctor did, and she decided working as a nurse would help her to cope with the greatest loss she'd ever felt. River had no idea though, how different she was to the others, and River never found it easy to work by their rules and regulations. 

 

 

~~*~~

"River, you can't just show up two hours late for your shift." A nurse scolded her, as River casually strolled into the nurses lounge. 

"Why not?" She looked at her co-worker with genuine confusion. "The other nurses come in later than me!" She crossed her arms defensively. 

"Yes, that's because their shift starts at that time. Yours started at," The nurse glances at her watch, "Seven in the morning. And what time is it now? Nine." She looked at her with a displeased expression. 

River rolled her eyes, "Oh two hours, boo hoo. I'm sure no one's died because of the lack of my presence in two hours." 

"River, you work in an ER. You can be gone five minutes and someone's already on their deathbed. Now get to work. Where's your ID?" The nurse sighed out of frustration. 

"Oh. I forgot it." River looked down to her uniform. "I don't need it anyway, I mean we all know who the other is here. I know your name is Mandy. I don't need a silly old ID to tell me that anymore." She smiled innocently at her. 

"Oh God-Never mind. Whatever. I'm going to do my  _job_ now." Mandy exited from the lounge, disappearing around a corner. River slumped down onto a chair near a table, resting her head against her hand. She looked at the clock.  _Time,_ she thought,  _does it always go this slowly?_ She pulled herself up from the chair and reluctantly made her way to the reception desks, where a bustle of doctor's and nurses ran past each other, all going to one place. Patients being rolled in, some crtical, and others stood outside complaining about the wait, or yelling in pain. Not a dull moment was ever existent in the hospital River worked at, and River loved it that way, it reminded her of those restless adventures she had with the Doctor, rushing to save someone's life, stopping death in within a matter of seconds. The thrill remained. 

"River get over here! We need you! Grab the chart!" River snaps out of her daydream as a trauma bursts in. She turns her head, looking for the said chart that was placed onto the reception desk and quickly grabs it, running after the gurney that wheeled the patient into care. And this was any other day for River for the past few weeks, while River didn't get along with many of the nurses or even the doctors, she knew what she was capable of, and that was trying to help others. 

She walked out of the trauma room, stripping off her gloves and mask and disposing of them. On days where they couldn't save their patient, those were the days that upset River the most. The staff constantly told her to not let her emotions get in the way of her work, but River knew she could have saved them, she knew that if they tried harder, they all could have. 

"River get back here." A doctor called out to her from the trauma room. 

She kept walking, angry at all of them, she stormed into the lounge again. 

"River. What do you think you're doing?" The doctor followed her into the lounge, where River sat at a table, looking down at her hands, holding the sonic screwdriver. 

"You don't even try." She said quietly. 

"I'm sorry?" He said, sitting down opposite her. 

"You don't even try!" She yelled out at him, glaring at the middle aged man who sat in front of her. "She  _died._ " 

"We did try. We all did. River, you can't save everyone. Doctors of all people know that best." He said in a calm tone.

River closed her eyes,  _Everybody knows that everybody dies, and nobody knows it like the Doctor._ Her words rang in her head. "You gave up!"

"Because she was unresponsive, and there was nothing else we could do." He raised his voice a bit. 

River slammed her hand on the table, jolting up from her seat, "Oh-Oh you all think you're so smart! That you've all got plans, that you can save everyone! That you're 'doctors', and you can fix it. Well you know what? It's a lie. You all lie, you don't even try at the end of the day, because all you care about is that big paycheck with your lousy names on it at the end of every month." The doctor tried to interrupt, but River raised her voice even louder, "I've met doctors better than all of you, doctors who care, doctors who actually try everything they can, and won't take no for an answer. And mark my words, it's doctors like that who are twice the man that you'll ever be." She walked out of the lounge before he could even respond, but everyone outside looked at her with eyes wide, they heard everything. And River, who wasn't necessarily well liked throughout the hospital, didn't make it any easier for herself to fit in this environment. But she took a deep breath, walking towards the stairwell with her head lifted up high. 

She quickly ascended the stairs, making her way to a certain room she always went to every time she felt upset and lonely. She didn't stop to talk to anyone on her way, looking straight forward, she angrily raced across the hall until she reached a door at the very end of the hallway, where the hospital was much emptier since no one came to that area often, only River did. She pressed her ear against the door to hear if anyone was inside, and after confirming that the room was in it's usual empty state, she crept into it, slowly closing the door behind her. River appeared in an electrical room, where there were wires and lights flashing and bleeps of sounds, she walked around, looking at the complicated devices, with buttons and switches that controlled this vast building. The room reminded her of the TARDIS, that's why she liked it. She hid in the room for quite sometime, often ditching the rest of her shift just to sit in this room for one reason only, and that reason was always worth more than her job. 

River sat in the middle of this room that was darkened, illuminating the lights even more, and she took out the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. She looked down at it lovingly, and playfully sounded it's soft buzzing noise, the green light glowing from it, she smiled softly. Just hearing that sound brought back a flood of memories she shared with the Doctor. River stood up, walking towards the complicated devices, she plugs the screwdriver into the circuit board, causing it to glow green constantly, and all the lights of the circuit board went out.

"Doctor. I'm so alone here." She spoke. "I don't know why I work here honestly, I suppose I just wanted to carry on the idea of helping people, like you did." She sighed. "Sometimes I wish you were actually here. They don't care enough like you do. Doctor, you always had a plan. Why didn't you this time? You think I like being all alone, no one knows my past, or the adventures I've been on with you, only you did." She looks up at the electrical circuit board with hope, "Oh come on, spare me a moment of sanity, I need you." River calls out in an exasperated tone. "Doctor?" She calls out.

"River." 

His voice sounded throughout the room, warming River's heart completely. The highlights of River's days were these moments. It took her a long time to finally realize what the Doctor meant when he said " _I want you to know that I'm always there as long as you have this"_ as he gave her his sonic screwdriver. But she finally did. The Doctor's consciousness. That's what he meant, and that's all she had of him now. His voice. 

"I'm always here River. You know that." he said again, his voice deep and crisp clear. 

"I know that Doctor." 

"I'm so sorry." 

"Don't be." She said looking at the circuit boards that now lit up each time the Doctor spoke. 

"I miss you, you know. It's awfully lonely here too." He said simply.

"That makes the two of us then. You and I have a lot in common, sweetie." She smiled sadly. 

He laughed "I see 'sweetie' is still saved for me, yes?"

"Only you." She grinned. "Only psychopaths get to be called sweetie."

"Well, that makes a lot of people, River." He laughed again. 

"But you're the biggest of them all." River's voice sounded with happiness, it was like he was back there with her, even if she couldn't see him and he couldn't see her. 

"Oh alright then. So why are you upset River?" His voice concerned.

"I'm just fed up with this lifestyle. I want to go on adventures with you again." 

"Hey, I'm not going anywhere for a long time either, dear." He poked fun at his deceased state.

River laughed, "You must be going out of your mind, watching time pass very slowly like this." 

"It isn't too bad I suppose. I've kept myself quite busy. I've reinvented the wheel!"

"Reinvented the wheel?" She burst out laughing "And how did you manage to do that?" 

"Well, I'll tell you this, it's much better than the last wheel." He said proudly. 

She shook her head, grinning to herself. 

River sat in the middle of that room everyday, whenever she had enough with the world, she always knew that the Doctor was there to talk to her, always there to make her laugh or feel better, and River never felt happier than when she spent hours talking about the silliest things with him, or venting her frustration or sadness that the others gave her at work. And while he may not have been there completely, River never left the Doctor's hearts, and he never left hers.  

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked it? dskfjksfjk if you didn't I'm sorry i wasted your time, but if you did then hey what about some kudos? Or any comments? Thanks!


End file.
